Growing Up by Brad Wilcox

132 pages

"Growing Up--Gospel Answers about Maturation and Sex presents the 'facts of life' as they should be presented--with respect and in the context of gospel standards and doctrine. Written especially for young people between the ages of ten and fifteen, this book will help open doors of communication between parents and children, facilitating their discussion of

• Conception, prenatal development, and birth
• Physical growth and maturation
• Love, marriage and sex
• The law of chastity

Growing Up offers the right information at the right time to help young people make the right choices." -Back Cover

I don't remember my parents ever really talking to me about any of this when I was growing up. I do remember that when I got engaged my mom gave me some pamphlets--written decades earlier--to read and told me to ask her if I had any questions, but by the age of 21 I wasn't used to talking to my parents about that kind of stuff and I wasn't about to start. (I let my fiancé read the pamphlets when I was done with them though!) 

My girls are growing up in a different age, an age when this kind of information (or misinformation) is available at the click of a button and basically in every primetime TV show. I've talked to them a little bit already, but I thought a well-written book on the subject might be helpful for all of us. I love Brad Wilcox. When I was a teenager I loved his EFY talks. The pleasant surprise was that the foreword is written by Dr. Myers, who just happens to have been my childhood physician and the doctor who brought my then fiancé and myself in for the marriage talk. He spoke to us in an open, direct way about sex and what I always appreciated about that talk was that it didn't make us feel uncomfortable. None of these topics should make us feel uncomfortable if discussed in the right way, which I think is the point of the book. We should be able to use anatomically correct names without giggling. 

This book will be a very helpful tool in helping my girls be informed about their bodies and their bodies' functions. It is written with an LDS perspective but I think it's helpful for any faith-based family or any other family for that matter. My oldest daughter is almost 13 and about to enter junior high. I feel like she is ready for most of this book and it's a good time to read and discuss it. There are a few chapters (About Boys, and a few of the last chapters on the more serious topics) that I'm still a little unsure about reading with her. I feel like they'll involve a little thought and prayer beforehand, and I probably won't read them until we've read everything else, but eventually she will hear about everything in this book and I would much rather she's heard it from me first and can have a correct perception of those things.